Real Reflective Dock?

[purry]

http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/showthread....2675#post492675

NEW POST WITH MISSION STATEMENT

[Ojalord]

Why don't you?

...

A few linux docks have that capability. I don't think windows (or at least windows XP, dunno about Vista) can have an app like that which would also be usable. If it had been so easy, somebody would have done it by now.

[purry]

I know, i run kiba dock in ubuntu.

How hard can it be though? If people can make the items in a dock magnify, and light up and all those effects, why cant they make a real refflective dock? I'm sure matonga or someone like that is capable of it.

[davidsword]

untill you actually know how to code you cant put an assumption that is as easy as magnification and lighting up..

this skin in cad reflects (in near real time) any application put on the solid half, its clearly possible is windows shit, but i havent a clue what its written in & if thats even achievable in a dock

[SirSmiley]

There's a huge number of issue I'd see cropping up as always do.

You could do something simple for traditional style icons (I have) but, once you throw in perspectives it would become a little trickier.

Then you've got to figure out how to handle various effects... like on Hover should have a resulting change to the reflection or the bounce on click should have a change as well.

You could do this in a systats config or maybe someone will make a docklet at some point.

IMO the time involved in creating a dock when a number of decent programs already exist just doesn't make sense.

[purry]

well instead of a refflective dock, how about really accurate icons, ones where the reflections hits the bottom of the dock? like in the real leopard dock?

[matonga]

Implementing a real reflective dock would be difficult (and maybe cpu consuming) in Vista, and worse yet in XP.

But a dock with a "Mirror the icons" option would be great as it is not so hard to implement (for someone having a whole Dock already developed), it is not resource consuming and it frees you from having to mirror the icons yourself (I mean something like having a dock with an integrated iReflector ) Of course, you loose the "desktop integration" as the windows and wallpaper won't get reflected into it, but it still would be better than nothing.

[schmrom]

I didn't want to start developing a new dock, but I thought about creting this reflection within a dock... Is there a dock which is opensource?

[Ghostwalker]

Is there a dock which is opensource?

It would be nice if RK was seeing how developement has come to a stop.

[schmrom]

RK would be a good base to start at, maybe to send a request for the source to radu, rebuild it and add the features?

I mean I am a good programmer, but i don't have the time to build up a hole dock...

[matonga]

Yeah, writing a whole dock from scratch is nonsense, taking into account there are so many nice free docks around.

However, but JUST AS A PROOF OF CONCEPT, here is a mirroring dock demo:

http://www.matiasmoreno.com.ar/MirroringDo...-2007-12-29.zip

I include sources, just in case any dock author can make good use of them. Feel free to use it in your own dock, with only one condition: your dock must be freeware (or cardware, giftware, opensource or similar).

Edit: some windows and effects may not show in the dock reflection. Technical explanation: layered windows won't show in the dock reflection. No easy way to work-around this.

[Ghostwalker]

Maxes out my cpu so I cant really try it.

[schmrom]

Same at with one of my cpu-cores, but a good start

[matonga]

oh, it runs smooth here, sorry.

The app uses a Timer, a work-around to get less cpu usage would be to use a larger interval. However as I'm not gonna implement a dock, I don't feel like adding options to a proof of concept. Don't get me wrong, it's just a proof of concept.

[Ghostwalker]

oh, it runs smooth here, sorry.

So what are you running I plan on getting a new computer this year and I would like to come up with the best.

[purry]

hmm..well if anyone here is willing to work with that and make a "mirror dock" I would be glad to help in anyway possible.

Do you think you could make on in AveDesk?

[matonga]

Ok, I updated it to show some icons.

Now it runs crispy in my PC too... specs: Core 2 Duo 2 GHz, nVidia 8500 GT... my God! if it runs bad here, I don't want to imagine how this will run in my job's PC! This may be the reason why there isn't any reflective dock released yet

[purry]

hmm..well..hopefully people will keep working on it

EDIT: Runs great on my pc, i have just about the same specs as you also.

Also, it looks great! the refflection or mirror is exactly what i was looking for.

If only we could incorporate that into rk launcher or something..

[Ghostwalker]

ok still hogs my little cpu but I was able to see it and the idea would be great.

[Sranshaft]

Ha! Yeah, it runs fine here. A little hiccup here and there but you can't expect perfection in a proof-of-concept. Specs: P4 3.2Ghz, 1 GB RAM, ATI 9550x128 MB.

+1 though for tacking this concept on to RK Launcher, if it ever gets open-sourced.

[purry]

i hope so. hopefully this will turn out very well.

[schmrom]

@matonga: It is running smooth on my computer too, but one of my core is used 100%...

@all: I tried to contact Raduking asking what is going on with rk, but no reaction until now

[purry]

ok good work everyone, im glad to see the community is coming together and trying to work this out.

Thanks everyone

[qhnM6805b]

well instead of a refflective dock, how about really accurate icons, ones where the reflections hits the bottom of the dock? like in the real leopard dock?

have u looked into the latest transformation of RK Launcher?

http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/showthread.php?t=46929

cheers ...

[Leonhart]

I think that the matonga proof of concept is really interesting, and I suggest to implement just a simple option to select how much the reflective dock have to be wide, so we can use it as a skin setting the skin of our dock application to 0 and have yours in background that reflect the windows and wallpaper, this will be awesome if you use the dock without magnification like I do. please implement this option!!

Leon